Chapter 6

The following few days were as uneventful as the ones before them, the only thing breaking Darren's dull routine being the banging and drilling going on outside. At the rate the repairs were progressing every time he glanced out a window, the court and field were going to be ready sooner than expected.

Darren wasn't the only one who'd noticed either, if the dozen men parked by the reinforced glass in the mess hall were anything to go by. He had been headed that way—‘Foundations of Interplanetary Economics' textbook in hand—but the noisy crowd that already occupied the space made it less appealing for the studying he had in mind. Shame, really, since he'd been looking forward to the artificially fresh air the open windows with the bars offered.

Heaving a sigh, Darren changed his destination to the library down the main corridor. He greeted the two guards stationed by the gates and had just scanned his ID bracelet at the entry/exit point when movement by the infirmary caught his eye.

With a bandage over his nose, Nyle walked out. He was the blond blue-eyed and fair-skinned twink without whose help Darren would still be stuck in the planning stages for his smuggling venture.

The delicate creature chuckled, his laugh a pleasant sound Darren was sure had charmed more than a few men. He thanked the doctor for the care and planted a kiss on his wrinkled forehead, earning himself a heartfelt scolding to be careful and not get in trouble again.

The request was unfair, Darren thought, given Nyle had done absolutely nothing wrong and Dave's irritation from losing at cards had started everything. Not that Nyle's affairs and wellbeing were usually Darren's business... although it had been a while since he had last had Nyle alone for fun and not for something business-related.

"Darren!" the high-pitched voice of the cute twink interrupted his train of thought, but judging by the flirtatious smile the twenty-or-so-years-old flashed him, they were both on the same page already.

"How was your check-up?" Darren commented, his eyes on the graying doc as he disappeared inside his office.

Nyle pointed at his nose as he wrinkled it. "Doc said it's healing well. As long as I don't get in any more fights, it should be as good as new in a couple of days."

"Glad to hear that."

"Thanks!" Nyle smiled, cocking his chin at the book in Darren's hand. "You off to read?"

"Yes. For tomorrow's business class."

Grazing Darren's arm with his fingers, Nyle hummed. "How diligent."

"And boring."

As if he'd been waiting for the words, Nyle inched in, resting his hand on the side of Darren's thigh. "Perhaps I could make it more fun for you?" He licked his plump lips. "After I catch you up on the latest… arrangements for our little side gig."

Darren regarded him with a quirk of his mouth to one side. This was definitely more intriguing than business models and whatever else was in the lesson. He turned on his heel and was about to lead the delicious-looking devil to his cell, when more movement by the med office caught his attention. Wearing the warden's uniform over his champagne shirt, Aiden Kesley stepped out. He said something to the doctor inside, making the old man laugh, then started down the hall. His gaze immediately locked on Darren, then bounced from him to Nyle, one of his brows twitching slightly in a restrained arch as it seemed to dawn on him what was taking place.

Darren felt a shiver down his back, each peak of his spine tingling with self-awareness at being caught in the act. He didn't know why it had this effect on him when fucking between inmates was commonplace, but he was sure that whatever the trigger, it definitely had something to do with his interest in the new warden.

Bracing himself for a sharp remark, he waited.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," Aiden said curtly as he walked past them.

He didn't scold them, didn't even pause. He simply smiled and continued on his way to wherever he was going. The anticlimactic reaction was in complete contrast with Darren's pounding heart, leaving him staring after the warden and wondering if that trace of disapproval in the lift of Aiden's lips had really been there.

Had he imagined it?Or had it been a momentary slip up on Aiden's part? Or even intended? Was there a reason why it would be? Or was Darren just being paranoid, letting the things from his past haunt him and throw a shadow over what could be an amazing opportunity for him?

He couldn't tell yet, but he had every intention of finding out.

Ruffling Nyle's golden curls, he said, "I'd love to have some fun, but I'm not in the mood."

The blond man pouted, narrowing his eyes. "Gee, Darren, really? You turn me down after that look you gave me? You got me all hot and excited."

He had been, too, until they'd run into Aiden. Now his mind had shifted gears, more interested in pondering the look on Aiden's face than taking Nyle up on his offer for sex. Part of him was annoyed by that, but another one just couldn't shake off the underlying worry that there could be more to the warden's interest.

"Maybe some other time?" Darren suggested with a flirty smile.

"Uh-huh, you bet. Can I at least tag along?" Nyle waved the economics textbook he was holding, which Darren had failed to notice. "I'm yet to go through the lesson from last time, plus I wanted to discuss some new products with you."

Oh right. Nyle was also in the business class. He'd had to leave last week's lesson early for a visit to the doctor's office. "You missed the warden's big announcement when it happened in the mess hall, didn't you?"

"Yeah, sadly. But Mika told me about the repairs and the entertainment unit. Honestly, I'm super excited. E-units are notoriously easy to mess with if you know the loopholes in their designs." Nyle shrugged, his eyes narrowing in a calculating look. "I also heard that after I went to see Doc, Mr. Kesley talked about the GN's achievements post Space Rev. Honestly, I'm more bummed about missing that than the announcement."

"Really? And why would you care about the GN's history? It's the same boring stuff we all learned in school."

Nyle shot him an impish smile as they walked into the library and headed for the tables with the computers. They were disconnected from the internet, of course, but they did have resources and training software for various subjects.

"Nuh-uh. You see, I think what he told you, and, for that matter, what we are taught, is rather inaccurate. At least according to my sources and, trust me, they know what they are talking about."

This was an interesting thing to say. Nyle seemed to be serious about it too, which got Darren wondering exactly what the cute twink was playing at.

"And what might that be?" he asked, curious and a little concerned what had prompted Nyle to go there.

Nyle gave him a once-over, not bothering to tone down the smirk he was sporting. "Surely, you've heard those rumors about the accident with the last Royals… You know, the one right before the GN was officially formed and the government-council became competent overnight."

The two of them passed an empty corner bookshelf. This part of the library had no people.

"Of course, among many others," Darren offered, pulling one of the chairs out from under the table they picked. He studied Nyle's face for a few moments, then sat down. "Do you believe in that kind of stuff? Conspiracy theories?"

Nyle sat down and cocked his head at him. "What if I did? Is that a problem for you? They are pretty fun to read about, and besides"—his smile stretched from ear to ear—"sometimes they end up being true, don't they?"

There was something accusatory in Nyle's tone, so Darren left it at that, not wanting to overstep and turn this into something he would regret. He didn't really know Nyle, and he deemed it best to leave things that way as to not make their sex and smuggling arrangement more complicated than it needed to be. They were business and fuck partners after all, not friends.

"What you believe or don't is none of my business," Darren said with a sly smile, opening the textbook to the lesson he was supposed to revise. "Though, I have to say…" He glanced at Nyle as the blond opened his own book. "I didn't take you for an example student."

"I'm full of all kinds of surprises." Nyle circled a strand of hair around his finger as he booted up the desktop computer. "What I've shown you is only a fraction of them," he teased, sounding proud.

Darren laughed and watched the other man open the command console and type something in. "Now that you mention it, you are right. I don't even know why you got thrown in here."

Nyle hummed, the sound more evaluating than contemplative. He fired a few more commands at the computer and opened a browser which was actually connected to the internet. None of the computers available to the inmates were supposed to even have network chips or the necessary ports, so Darren had no idea how Nyle was able to pull it off.

"I didn't think it mattered at first, that's why I haven't told you, but… Let's just say that a certain very well-known corporation was not too fond of their financials being leaked to a competitor," Nyle said, blinking innocently at Darren.

Darren's mouth stretched into a grin. Surely, Nyle didn't mean... "Really? And which corporation might that be?"

"That's a secret," the blond said, logging into some website. "But"—he looked up from the screen, blue eyes twinkling with mischief—"I bet you would approve."

Darren's stomach squeezed involuntarily. A bolt of panic constricted his chest. Few knew why he was here or what exactly he'd done. Inmates didn't tend to keep up with the outside world and what happened in it, so unless they chose to talk about why they were in prison, it was typically not something that you could easily find out. However, as Darren was thrown yet another flirty smile, his gut told him that Nyle had already figured it all out on his own.

"Enough about this for now, though. We've got more important things to do," Nyle said when Darren just kept staring at him. He turned the monitor and pointed at it. "I can get us a batch of those fruit-flavored lollipop things that kids on the outside are raving about. You think you can find us buyers?"

Darren leaned back in his chair and crossed his hands behind his head. "Nope. But if you've got spare credits, an extra box of cigarettes is the way to go. I bet we'll sell out within the first hour no matter how much shit we bring in." After all, alcohol and cigarettes were always hot in prisons, bringing in a piece of the old lives people had enjoyed.

Nyle pouted. "I kind of wanted to try them, but they only do wholesale... Great." He clicked through a few more menus, then leaned into his own chair. He straightened the collar of his orange jumpsuit. Unlike Darren's, it was a perfect fit as if it had been custom-made, and the inmate number printed on the sleeve was 404. "Whatever. I'll get a box for me on top of your extra cigarettes," he mumbled to himself, frowning. "Okay. That's my part done then. Shipment will be here next week, same guards shift as last time. I'll leave the rest to you."

Darren nodded, excitement stirring in his gut. It had taken him two years to set things up and get friendly with the right guards so he could pull something like this off, but until Nyle's arrival a couple of months ago, he'd not had that last missing piece to put it all together. They'd only done small-scale test runs so far, but this next one was going to be bigger, and he couldn't wait to reap the benefits.

After a few more clicks, Nyle closed the browser and opened the diagram depicting the post-space revolution developments in economy Aiden had drawn in last week's lesson. He scoffed at it but didn't say anything and so Darren didn't either. They studied in silence for a while, but eventually, Darren got a little bored.

"Is there any point in me asking how you did what you did earlier?" he said, tilting his chin at the holographic computer screen.

Amusement swam in Nyle's blue eyes. "Let's say I'm very good at what I do, but I can't give you any specifics," he said, licking his lips. "It's part of the hacker code. We don't share our secrets. But… for the right incentive, I can probably be persuaded."

Darren's cock jumped in his pants, totally on board with that. He closed his textbook, leaned in, and whispered, "Oh? Consider me intrigued." He slid his hand up Nyle's thigh, tracing the inner side. "Perhaps studying can wait for a bit. I suddenly feel like doing something fun."